A CARLISLE man was left thinking he was going to die after a hospital letter wrongly told him he was suffering from several serious medical conditions.

80-year-old watchmaker Anthony Layne was left reeling after a letter sent from the Cumberland Infirmary told him he had stage four chronic kidney disease - which he does not have.

The letter also wrongly told him he had heart disease, gout and an abdominal aortic aneurysm (swollen major blood vessel).

Mr Layne, who still works part time, received the letter three weeks ago, but has yet to receive an explanation from the hospital as how the error occurred.

Sent to him following a short hospital stay on Christmas Eve, the correspondence correctly stated Mr Layne had been diagnosed with a left hemispheric TIA - a mini-stroke - and high blood pressure.

But the letter's announcement that he had an aneurysm, heart disease and stage four kidney disease - one stage from failure, shocked Mr Layne.

"Once I opened that letter, I thought 'good god, I'll have to look these up on the computer'," Mr Layne said.

"I felt really quite sick when I read about the chronic kidney disease, stage four.

"It said that at stage five, you've either got to have dialysis or it will kill you."

I thought 'looking at this, I haven't got much time left'.

"It was very distressing," Mr Layne said. Mr Layne immediately contacted his GP surgery to make an appointment.

"I couldn't stop thinking about it," he said.

Three days later he was seen by his GP, who instantly identified that most of the letter's information was incorrect.

Mr Layne was relieved to learn he was not in fact seriously ill, but has had his trust in the Cumberland Infirmary shaken by the experience.

"Wondering about this, I have thought whether other things I have been told were wrong," he said.

The letter was correctly addressed to Mr Layne, including the right name, address and NHS number.

But the wrong list of medical conditions led Mr Layne to initially believe he had accidentally been sent details relating to another patient.

However, a spokesperson for the NHS trust responsible for the Cumberland Infirmary said no disclosure of confidential information had occurred as a result of the letter's dispatch.

“We can confirm that no patient identifiable details or confidential information has been shared," said a A North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust spokesperson.

The spokesperson continued: “we would like to thank Mr Layne for bringing this to our attention and apologise for any distress caused.

"We are investigating this particular case and have been in touch with Mr Layne as part of this.

“We have recently moved to a new system for producing discharge summaries as we look to make more services digital and link with GP practices and believe that the information added to Mr Layne’s summary was incorrect."